...

Walking through the portal, I was greeted with the surprising sight of a bed in Jane's apartment, one with said woman on top of it, snuggled in with a book.

Noticing my entrance, the woman's head snapped towards me as a relieved smile cut her face. "Ugh, thank god, you're here, I was getting bored out of my mind!"

Blinking once, I idly raised an eyebrow at the bed taking over a quarter of the space in her studio.

"Oh, you like it?" She questioned eagerly. "I got it at a discount when I mentioned I was affiliated with Stark Industries."

I shrugged, before taking a seat on it, finding it surprisingly more comfortable than expected as I idly tapped the side. "Affiliated with Stark? How's that exactly?" I questioned, briefly glancing over the book in her hands.

"I am affiliated with you, and you work for Tony?" She deadpanned towards me.

I snorted at the words before turning towards the tv she'd moved to make room for the king-sized bed that had no right to be in an apartment this small. "What are you reading?" I turned on the tv and started flipping through the channels, eventually landing on the one Steve Rogers would make his 'first' appearance in.

Jane blinked once before looking back down towards her book with a crease in her brow. "Oh, this? Nothing really. My sister's having some trouble with it in one of her classes. She asked me for some help." She shrugged.

I hid the surprise on my face at the surprising tidbit of knowledge.

I had no idea Jane Foster had had a sibling in the comics, nor movies.

Turning back towards the book's title, Jane idly showing me the title page, I was hit with a force of nostalgia as I took in the title.

"Of Mice and Men?" I questioned with a pair of raised eyebrows, I promptly shook my head again with a wistful smile. "Man, that brings me back."

"You've read it?"

I nodded wordlessly, reaching out to grab ahold of the book.

Steve's live announcement wouldn't start for another half hour or so.

"In Hogwarts?" Jane followed on with a snort as she handed over the book.

"No... A lot earlier than that..." I remarked wistfully as I skimmed through the chapter she'd stopped on. "First life actually. I had to deal with the horrors of education too you know."

Jane blinked once, twice before she let out a giggle at the words. "Oh, that's hilarious! I can't imagine you having to sit through an English class as a normal kid!"

"According to my teachers, I am not sure I ever did." I snorted in response.

"How'd you end up doing? I mean with all of your classes. Did you ace-"

"I failed each and every single one of them." I deadpanned towards her. "Physics had been spectacularly bad."

"...You never passed high school!?" She questioned dramatically, or seriously, I couldn't really tell.

"Nope!" I snorted, not bothering to mention the fact I'd never actually studied in America, to begin with. "Didn't really matter though, in the end." I added on. "By the time everyone started looking through colleges and universities, I'd already kicked the bucket and found myself in another world."

Whatever expression, or reaction I'd expected, never came as Jane went eerily silent as she stared at me, before a frown took over her face as she looked down. "...That's..." She stopped herself from saying anything further.

"Jane?" I questioned, raising my gaze off the book to really take a look at her. "You alright?"

"...Are you?"

I blinked in bemusement as I shifted my body position to face her. "Err, yeah? It's really not a big-"

"...You... From the stories you've told me about your adventures..."

This was getting somewhat worrying as I fidgeted the slightest with the book in my hands.

"You never got the chance to grow up..?"

I opened my mouth to respond and promptly closed it, electing to think her words over for a second as it really dawned on me that I never actually experienced adulthood in a normal, sane-ish, world.

"You know, that does explain a lot."

The worst part was, I was fairly sure it wasn't the first time someone had tried pointing-

Time itself seemed to slow down as my senses seemed to heighten for a moment as I blinked rapidly, my eyes haphazardly searching around- Jane's own expressions slowing down immensely.

Not willing to risk anything, I immediately opened up a portal beneath the two of us, earning a surprised and rather shocked reaction out of the woman as we both fell through, landing outside, on top of the roof of a nearby building.

Jane's sudden gasp and exclamation was ignored as my gaze zeroed in on her apartment.

"What-"

Just in time to, as her mouth snapped shut the moment her apartment was suddenly filled with an explosion.

Locking gazes with the shocked woman as the sound of emergency alarms and shrieking pedestrian started filling the air, I calmly asked her where she'd gotten the mattress from.

She didn't answer, her hands visibly shaking as she started between me and the now burning building.

"...It was..." her voice turned into a whisper as her eyes seemed to widen further and further as the signs of a panic attack quickly filled her expression.

When I made to reach a hand out towards her, if only to calm her down, my senses started screaming at me again as I instead elected to pick up the woman and duck my own head in the process, a bullet of sorts grazing my hair in the process as it shot past and cut into the ground beneath us.

With a curse, I flung the held the woman bridal style and immediately made another portal, this time to Tony Stark's lab.

I barely managed to get through the portal, as another bullet dug into my shoulder, earning a curse out of me.

Tony Stark, fortunately, was around.

Unfortunately, judging by the sudden female gasp, he wasn't alone.

"Quack?" Tony questioned with a frown, "I have compan-" Whatever he'd been about to say snapped shut as his eyes narrowed. "You're bleeding." He helpfully pointed out.

"Hey Pepper." I idly greeted the second in the room, carefully placing Jane down in front of me. "Tony. I think someone just tried to kill me." I remarked with a grunt as clarity filled Jane's eyes again. Reaching into the back of my left shoulder with my right hand, I ignored the wince of pain, as well as Tony's indignant urge to stop what I was doing, and pulled the unbelievably sharp bullet out.

Looking it over, I held in the urge to curse as I took in the kinetic energy it seemed to pulse with. Tony Stark himself having shown up beside me as his eyes narrowed further, while Pepper thankfully, rushed towards Jane.

"Expensive assassin." The man remarked warily. "'Cos if I didn't know any better, I'd say that was Vibranium." He added on, reaching out to grab the bullet from me, only to stop the moment I closed my hand around it, anger briefly filling me as I locked eyes with him.

"Give me a second," I stated calmly as I reached into my pocket with my other, uninjured, hand, grasping hold of the only seal I had on my person at the moment, and began spinning up a portal with my other Sling-ringed hand, my focus on the bullet held inside it itself. The moment said portal opened up, a suspicious hint of the person responsible in my mind, I reached the injured arm through it, to Tony's annoyance, and pulled the fucker on the other side out. Tony immediately taking a step back as he stood right before Pepper and Jane, an Iron Man palm flying into his.

Needless to say, I let out another curse as I stared at Killmonger's unnerving gaze.

When he tried to make a move, not bothering to introduce himself,,. I immediately stuck the piece of paper onto his elbow, an electric shock covering his entire body for a brief moment before-

I let out a terse breath as I watched his suit suddenly light up in a strange glow as the discharge of electricity disappeared, the seal slipping off his elbow immediately after.

Without a second thought, I promptly kicked the guy back through the open portal, before he could reach out for one of the balls strapped around his waist.

"...Shit." I cursed out loud. "What the fuck did I do to Wakanda!?" I questioned no one in particular. I didn'tt see any other scenario that involved that fucker getting his hands on a suit- Unless he somehow stole it from one of the most secure places on the planet!?

"...Quack Doctor, for future reference, don't portal Vibranium using assassins into my lab!"

I ignored the man's remark as I immediately turned towards a slowly calming Jane.

"...You're bleeding..." She promptly pointed out, as her gaze turned towards a very confused Pepper Pots. "Do... Do you have a first aid kit somewhere..?" She practically whispered the question out. Her gaze filtering around the room before it landed on mine again. "I... saw that guy before... He was the delivery guy for the bed... I am so sorry! I didn't-"

I put a finger over her lips, with the uninjured hand, as I shook my head.

"It's fine-"

"What'd you need a delivery guy for? Your boyfriend could've teleported it." Tony Stark grouched out as he shook his head. "You college kids and wasting money, it's no wonder you always go broke."

...

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